Have you, Wanderer reader, even attended Mass in one of the Eastern Rites of the Church? If you haven’t, look online for a parish of the Byzantine Rite to see how beautiful the worship of God can be among our Eastern Rite brethren. Just make sure it is Catholic, and not Orthodox, because both of their liturgies seem very similar to people who are not aware of the differences.
I for one used to frequent the Catholic Ukrainian Rite in Australia, for nearly nine years, and became involved in the sacredness of the Catholic East, which is virtually unknown to most Americans of the Latin Rite.
In the United States, we are used to the Roman, or Latin, Rite, which is the largest in the world, and some of us may think that this is the only one. But you may be surprised to know that there are 22 approved rites in the Church, different ways to celebrate Mass and the sacraments, and all of them are at least 500 years old. They are not the product of some brainy liturgist in a parish committee.
The Byzantine Rite has several forms, like the Ukrainian of Ukraine and the Melkite of Lebanon and the Russian. Then you have the Armenian, the Egyptian Coptic, the Malabar and the Malankara of India, the Syrian, the Ethiopian, the Maronite, the Chaldean, and even within the Roman Latin Rite there are variations, like the Franciscan, the Dominican, the Mozarabic of Toledo, and the Ambrosian of Milan.
If you look up online the list of liturgical rites in the Church, you will be impressed by this other aspect of Catholicism: the beauty of unity in dogma and of variety in liturgy. And the languages vary, too.
Since the sixth century, the Byzantine Greek liturgy has been conducted in Byzantine Greek and the Byzantine Russian liturgy has been conducted in Old (Church) Slavonic. The Egyptian Coptic use the ancient Coptic language, and the Armenians use the ancient Armenian language, and so on.
You may ask: Why did the Church preserve the use of ancient tongues which are no longer in use? If people do not speak those languages, what is the point in having them? Shouldn’t we worship God in a language the people understand?
The use of ancient languages in liturgy springs from a desire to preserve ancient prayers in their original form. This helps maintain a universal, timeless, and transcendent ritual that joins people to their ancestors in the faith.
In our case in the Roman Rite, the Latin language used to be the same in all countries. You could go to Germany, Argentina, Senegal, or Vietnam and fully participate in the liturgy of the Mass with the local Catholics. Your missal provided the translation for you. That prevented crazy liturgists from tampering with the liturgy and including their individual opinions about enculturation and all sorts of nonsensical manipulations as we see today.
You see, an ancient tongue expresses the inherently “traditional” (i.e., handed-on) nature of the sacred liturgy; it is redolent of the early Church atmosphere and commands the respect and adherence of the faithful — unlike the vernacular translations, which have become an incessant source of division.
I have spent years working as a translator, and know by my own experience that we translators never agree among ourselves about the choice of words to use. People say that if you have two translators, you will have three versions of the text, because one is bound to change his mind about the words to use.
Today there are many versions of the Church liturgy, especially in the various English-speaking countries, to mention only those. And there is confusion, naturally.
When Pope Benedict XVI in his apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum gave permission to all priests of the Latin Rite to celebrate the Mass and the sacraments according to the Traditional Rite, immediately the celebration of the Latin Mass proliferated.
You may ask whether, since the decision to abolish Latin in the liturgy of the Mass was made by Vatican II, Pope Benedict XVI mistaken in authorizing its return to use in the liturgy.
If anyone has suggested this to you, they are wrong and sorely misinformed. The fact is that the fathers of the Second Vatican Council decreed: “The use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin Rites.”
As you see, Vatican II did not abolish Latin. The council fathers merely made it easier to use the local language, the vernacular, in some prayers and chants:
“But since the use of the vernacular language, whether in the Mass, the administration of the sacraments, or in other parts of the liturgy, can frequently prove very profitable to the people, a wider place may be given to it, especially in readings, directives, and in some prayers and chants.”
Then they concluded: “Nevertheless, care must be taken to ensure that Christ’s faithful may also be able to say or sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them.”

The Church Triumphant

Now we can see why so many parishes around the United States are making good use of the council’s directive and Pope Benedict’s encouragement, and restoring more and more the Latin and the Traditional liturgy, especially among young people.
It is unfortunate that in a great many dioceses today the priests do not celebrate the Traditional liturgy, even when the people ask for it, because they fear reprisals from their bishops, who prefer to impose their own preferences over and above the Pope’s authority. But I digress.
But it is not only bishops who dislike the return of the Traditional Latin liturgy. In one of his improvised, off-the cuff comments, the Holy Father suggested that the young Catholics who rejoice in the Traditional Rite are too “rigid.” He and other Church authorities may have forgotten that the Mass is the unbloody renewal of the sacrifice of the cross, and the cross of Christ was also rigid. But I digress again.
To rediscover the sense of the sacred in Catholic liturgy today is a must. Hence, the attitude of devout lay Catholics, who attend Mass only in parishes where sacredness in liturgy is maintained, is to be encouraged and supported.
It is unfortunate that many liturgists, lay and clerical, have forgotten — to put it mildly — that the liturgy of the Church Militant here on Earth must reflect the liturgy of the Church Triumphant in Heaven. After all, there is no Church liturgy in Purgatory, and there is no Church at all in Hell.

+ + +

(Raymond de Souza is available to speak at Catholic events anywhere in the free world in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. Please email Sacred HeartMedia@Outlook.com or visit www.RaymonddeSouza.com or phone 507-450-4196 in the United States.)

Vatican City, Feb 17, 2018 / 05:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Saturday the Vatican announced that Pope Francis has reconfirmed Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston as head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, also reconfirming seven members…Continue Reading

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to the Trump administration’s 2019 federal budget proposal on Monday, the U.S. Catholic bishops are urging for a budget that shows greater concern for “‘the least of these” and warning that the U.S. “must never seek…Continue Reading

A Connecticut high school student may have to decide whether to remove a Planned Parenthood sticker on her laptop or leave her Catholic school after administrators told her to remove it, her parents said. Sophomore Kate Murray’s parents told the Greenwich Time that…Continue Reading

February 8, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The Bible’s condemnation of homosexual acts should be taken in “context” with Biblical times, Jesuit Father James Martin toldGeorgetown University students recently. Martin said as well that Catholics who support gay “marriage” should have no problem…Continue Reading

JACKSON, Mississippi, February 2, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A bill banning abortion on babies more than 15 weeks old passed the Mississippi state House today 79-31. House Bill 1510 would make Mississippi the state with the most pro-life laws if it…Continue Reading

Just three Democrats in the U.S. Senate supported a bill on Monday that would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks when unborn babies are capable of feeling pain. The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which has strong public support from Republicans…Continue Reading

ROME, January 30, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – In an exclusive interview two weeks after issuing a profession of immutable truths about sacramental marriage, Bishop Athanasius Schneider is inviting his brother bishops around the world to join in raising a common voice…Continue Reading

As Katholisch.de, the official website of the German bishops, reports today, Cardinal Willem Eijk, the Dutch cardinal and Metropolitan Archbishop of Utrecht, requested that Pope Francis bring light into the confusion concerning the question as to how to deal with…Continue Reading

When Selena Miller, a practicing Catholic, applied to DePaul, she had no idea it was a Catholic university. Damita Meneves, another practicing Catholic, said she has met only one other Catholic student in her first year at DePaul. DePaul is…Continue Reading

His Eminence, Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, spoke recently with Thinking with the Church, hosted by Chris Altieri, who is also a regular contributor to Catholic World Report. Cardinal Burke responds to questions regarding the interpretation and reception of the post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris…Continue Reading

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By DON FIER (Editor’s Note: His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and Founder of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wis., graciously took time out of his busy schedule to grant The Wanderer a wide-ranging interview during a recent visit to the Shrine. Included among the topics…Continue Reading

By RAYMOND LEO CARDINAL BURKE (Editor’s Note: His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke delivered the address below at the 32nd Annual Church Teaches Forum, “The Message of Fatima: Peace for the World,” Galt House, Louisville, Ky., July 22, 2017. The address is reprinted here with the kind permission of Cardinal Burke. All rights reserved. This is part one of the…Continue Reading

Catechism

Today . . .

There’s nothing, it seems, that the abortion chain Planned Parenthood won’t sue over. On Thursday, affiliates of the abortion chain in seven states sued the Trump administration for cutting funding for their questionable teen pregnancy prevention programs. The Daily Nonpareil reports the lawsuits argue that the Trump administration wrongly cut their funding prematurely and without cause. Nine groups, including Planned Parenthood affiliates in Washington, Iowa, North Carolina, South C

CAMBRIDGE, England, February 15, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – A respected Catholic historian and philosopher challenged Cardinal Blase Cupich during a lecture last week about Pope’ Francis so-called “revolution of mercy” that has caused what many are defending as a “paradigm shift” in Catholic practice. Professor John Rist, after listening to a February 9 lecture at Cambridge Universityin which Cardinal Cupich praised Pope Francis’ “paradigm shift” in Catholic practice, asked the Cardinal at the end of the lect

VIENNA, Austria, February 14, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Austria’s bishops, led by Vienna’s Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, are indignant over a retired bishop’s passionate defense of Catholic teaching in opposing Church “blessings” for homosexual unions. After Bishop Andreas Laun, the retired Auxiliary Bishop of Salzburg, Austria, published Monday his strong rebuke of the German bishops for proposing to bless homosexual couples, there has been an inten

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago is all for clarity. It has been a consistent theme, as when in September of 2017 he issued a decree banning guns in all parishes, schools and other facilities across the archdiocese “so there would be absolute clarity on our position.” His official statement put “clarity” in italics. When he was bishop of Rapid City, he called for “civility and clarity” in discussing legislation that would limit abortion, but he…Continue Reading

BEIJING — A group of influential Catholics published an open letter Monday express their shock and disappointment at report that the Vatican could soon reach a deal with the Chinese government, warning that it could create a schism in the church in China. The Holy See has been in negotiations for several years with the Chinese Communist Party and is now belie

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Within a week of taking office on January 23, 2017, President Trump reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy, now called the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance, which bans U.S. funding for abortions overseas. The expanded policy prohibits $9 billion in U.S. taxpayer money from funding foreign organizations that perform or…Continue Reading

By HANNAH BROCKHAUS VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) — The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has approved the second miracle needed for the canonization of Blessed Pope Paul VI, allowing his canonization to take place, possibly later this year. According to Vatican Insider, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved the miracle by a…Continue Reading

By STEPHEN M. KRASON (Editor’s Note: Stephen M. Krason’s Neither Left nor Right, but Catholic column appears monthly [sometimes bimonthly] in Crisis. He is professor of political science and legal studies and associate director of the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is also cofounder and president of…Continue Reading

By LISA BOURNE (Editor’s Note: LifeSiteNews ran this story on February 5.) + + + A Catholic priest is calling on bishops to excommunicate the 14 Catholic-identifying U.S. senators who voted two weeks ago against banning late-term abortions. He is also calling on priests to deny the Catholic pro-abortion senators Holy Communion. “Today is the…Continue Reading

By JAMES LIKOUDIS The centuries-old theological debate concerning the existence of Limbo for unbaptized babies (the limbo puerorum as a state of natural happiness) led to the 2007 publication of the document The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptized by the International Theological Commission (ITC). The commission concluded there are “serious…Continue Reading

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Our Catholic Faith (Section B of print edition)

By DON FIER For a variety of reasons (a defect of consent, a diriment impediment, or a defect of the required form), many supposed modern-day marriages entered into by Catholic persons are invalid from their origin in the eyes of God and the Church. However, as we saw last week, depending on the circumstances, the Church has procedures by which…Continue Reading

Q. Concerning what our Blessed Mother said in Fatima about the rosary, I am confused as to whether or not she meant us to meditate on the mysteries while we are praying the Hail Marys or whether she meant us to meditate on the mysteries right before we say the Hail Marys. The consensus seems to be that we are…Continue Reading

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Second Sunday Of Lent Readings: Gen. 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18 Romans 8:31b-34 Mark 9:2-10 In the first reading today we hear about Abraham’s nearly incomprehensible act of faith and love for God shown in his willingness to sacrifice his own son. We have to be careful not to read this in a vacuum. This test, which…Continue Reading

By ANDREA GAGLIARDUCCI (Wanderer Editor’s Note: Catholic News Agency on February 3 published a commentary concerning a 1989 Vatican response to dissent against Humanae Vitae. Below is an excerpted version of that commentary. Following that, we reprint the full text of the 1989 Vatican response, which, as the CNA commentary explains, is now available on the Vatican’s website. Please also…Continue Reading

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK A joke sometimes recounted among clergy goes along these lines: Someone greets a wise old priest by asking, “What’s new?”, and he responds, sagely, “Christ is risen!” The humor here is less about what’s new than about the fact that everything, other than the only true revolution of Christ’s Incarnation and triumph over death, is…Continue Reading

By CAROLE BRESLIN Great sinners make great saints. It takes a strong-willed child to become a saint. These are statements which would easily fit saints such as Mary Magdalene and St. Augustine. In the thirteenth century, a young lady free in spirit and strong in will led such a life that she was essentially driven from her home village, but…Continue Reading

By CAROLE BRESLIN In the lives of the saints one thing is very common: They have such a strong desire to do God’s will that nothing will hinder their work. Many saints, despite illness, weak health, or many other obstacles achieved their goals. Frequently the amount of work accomplished by such individuals seems humanly impossible — and, of course, it…Continue Reading